--- title: King Salman Golden Escalator Fail Gets Funniest Reactions description: During the first official visit of a Saudi monarch to Russia, King Salman's golden escalator from his airplane failed to function. canonical: https://time.com/4972313/king-salman-escalator/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-06T15:32:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:47:50.702Z og:title: The Internet Has Jokes for This Saudi King's Golden Fail og:description: King Salman's golden escalator from his jet malfunctioned in Russia og:url: https://time.com/4972313/king-salman-escalator/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc604c4155d085a17/6988e0cf8fd2eed38c359282/gettyimages-857543514.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4386 og:image:height: 2467 og:image:alt: RUSSIA-SAUDI-DIPLOMACY og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Internet Has Jokes for This Saudi King's Golden Fail twitter:description: King Salman's golden escalator from his jet malfunctioned in Russia twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc604c4155d085a17/6988e0cf8fd2eed38c359282/gettyimages-857543514.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Internet Has Successful Jokes About the Saudi King's Golden Escalator Fail > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Oct 6, 2017 3:32 PM UTC  Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud gets off the plane upon his arrival at Moscow's Vnukovo Airport on October 4, 2017\. / AFP PHOTO / Alexander NEMENOV (Photo credit should read ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP/Getty Images) Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud gets off the plane upon his arrival at Moscow's Vnukovo Airport on October 4, 2017\. / AFP PHOTO / Alexander NEMENOV (Photo credit should read ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP/Getty Images) ALEXANDER NEMENOV—AFP/Getty Images  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Oct 6, 2017 3:32 PM UTC Some people fly first class. Some people have private jets. And then there’s [King Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud](http://time.com/collection-post/3823845/king-salman-2015-time-100/) of Saudi Arabia, who flies private — and then continues the luxe experience using his own customized golden escalator, on which he can disembark when the plane touches down. But King Salman’s landing [in Moscow](http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/14913/saudis-kick-off-historic-moscow-visit-with-plans-to-buy-s-400-air-defense-system) this week did not quite have the powerful impact he may have hoped for after the escalator malfunctioned, causing the 81-year-old royal to have to descend the steps on his own steam instead of via gilded machinery. Notably, this is the first time a Saudi monarch has visited Russia for official business, [the _Guardian_ reports](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/10/06/saudi-king-salmans-golden-escalator-breaks-visit-russia/), and Saudi Arabia’s long-reigning head of state — also known as His Majesty the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques — was in town to meet with Russian leader [Vladimir Putin.](http://time.com/4949414/hillary-clinton-vladimir-putin-manspreading/) Regardless of the momentousness of the occasion, the internet has thoughts on King Salman’s awkward mechanical misstep. > [](https://twitter.com/mashant/status/915619047416434690) > [](https://twitter.com/1NelsonMandelLa/status/916278766879506433) > [](https://twitter.com/hey%5Fdani%5Fhey/status/916306480453902338) > [](https://twitter.com/rezamarashi/status/915948674705915904) > [](https://twitter.com/CallieHelm86/status/916039730860453888) > [](https://twitter.com/LenLoving/status/916182757801209856) > [](https://twitter.com/cbharra/status/916318960689217536) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4972313/king-salman-escalator/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4972313/king-salman-escalator/"},"headline":"The Internet Has Successful Jokes About the Saudi King's Golden Escalator Fail","datePublished":"2017-10-06T15:32:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:47:50.702Z","description":"During the first official visit of a Saudi monarch to Russia, King Salman's golden escalator from his airplane failed to function.","url":"https://time.com/4972313/king-salman-escalator/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","royals","Funny"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc604c4155d085a17/6988e0cf8fd2eed38c359282/gettyimages-857543514.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc604c4155d085a17/6988e0cf8fd2eed38c359282/gettyimages-857543514.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"RUSSIA-SAUDI-DIPLOMACY","caption":"RUSSIA-SAUDI-DIPLOMACY","creditText":"ALEXANDER NEMENOV—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4972313/king-salman-escalator/","name":"The Internet Has Successful Jokes About the Saudi King's Golden Escalator Fail"}}]}] ```